This is very cynical post. Granted that dirtiness is pervasive in India and symbolic efforts do not go very far – but that does not mean India should not make any beginning from any place, that unless all places are cleaned up all at once, the effort deserves ridicule as sham.

There is no magic wand that can clean up all places all at once – it has to start from somewhere, one place at a time. The notion that cleaning of A or B is not worthy unless x, y and z are also cleaned up, or that public places should not be cleaned up until political life is rid of stink first – these kind of reasoning are obstructionist excuses and rationalizations for doing nothing and stalling any new beginning just because they are large on vision but modest on scale. If you think symbolic or political movements don’t get very far, than help make it a mass people movement, by joining it, by encouraging it, rather than ridiculing it.

So I ask you – Why not take the challenge to clean up any public area of your choice and post the pictures on your blog, and challenge your readers to do the same?

Dear Sir, I fully agree with you that some one has to start at somewhere and Modi has taken right step. We have to see ગુજરાતીમાં એક કહેવત છે કે “આરંભે શુરા” જેવું નહી થવું જોઈએ. The way Sardar Patel’s statue movement started I thought it will be going fast, now we do not hear a single word about it. I wrote it should not be a political movement because it is observed that when Gandhi Jayanti comes, statues are cleaned, roads are cleaned and we see all political leaders in action that day. Next day everybody forget it. If you express your views for border conflicts does not mean that you must joined army. If it is so, nobody has to criticize anything, there will be “Ram Rajya”. For your information I am not in India, when I was there I did something in my capacity. For final outcome of this clean India movement, just wait and watch. If we are successful only 25% than also it will be a big achievement. Once again I am telling you cartoons and jokes should not be taken very seriously. They are for fun and enjoyment too…kp too hot….Your comments are welcome, thanks.

Modi akela kya kya clean Karega. If people like you and me do not take it up as our own individual responsibility, nothing will change, and as usual, we will blame politicians and wait for some superman or godly avatar to do it for us.

If you post a before picture of a dirty place, than you are also supposed to post an after picture AFTER YOU CLEANED IT UP. That is how this abhiyan is meant to work and that is the only way it can produce mass movement for Swachh Bharat. If everybody were to imitate you and post only dirty pictures and wait for somebody else to clean it up, than it will generate not mass movement nor cleanliness but flood of only dirty pictures and attitudes asking why others have not cleaned them up and how politicians are “આરંભે શુરા” but chicken out after they milked the photo-ops and publicity. Good initiatives with good intentions get abandoned because people refuse to join and create any stake in it, and thereby giving opportunistic opposition a leverage to raise insurmountable odds. Who suffers? Not politicians. They move on to something else. Its people and country who lose. Than why play such losing game with issues like cleanliness? It does not make sense.

I agree cartoons and jokes should not be taken too seriously, but than they should also not lightly tread upon issues that should be taken very seriously. We do not make cartoons or jokes about rapes or sexually molesting children, at least not in public domain. There is plenty else to laugh and joke about in life, and you have plenty of it on your site too, thanks for that, why i like to lurk on you site regularly.

I am also in USA, and like you, I can not directly take up any cleanup challenges in India – so all we can do from afar is to raise awareness and encourage people in India to take it seriously and make it a success, and pray it succeeds. You have excellent forum that gives you a platform, that you can leverage to encourage people